Whistling Train Farm

Sweet Corn, Persian Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Napa Cabbage, Green Beans, Lettuce, Beets, Stir-Fry Greens, Red Onions!

THIS WEEK’S SUBSCRIBER MENU:

• Snap Beans or Napa Cabbage
• Big Red Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Beets
• Red Onions
• Sweet Corn
• Stir-Fry Greens Mix

Click on the links above for information and recipes about these crops.

COMING SOON: Peppers, Broccoli, Celery, Leeks

A late summer sunset, with no wildfire smoke.

Late Summer is the toughest farm season. I apologize for not being in better contact. Once the real heat begins outside, we are obsessed with irrigation. Water lines are moved every three hours, around the clock. Not only are we working to keep all of our summer crops alive and growing, but we are in a frenzy to sow and establish all of the fall and winter crops as well. Sometimes we have to make choices about what survives and what to let go because there just isn’t enough water for everything.

Checking on the peppers and eggplants, and taming the yard-long beans on the right.

But now we are in September, and everything is planted for the year. (Well, I have one more greenhouse to sow in greens next week, but it’s not quite ready yet.) If you’ve been around the CSA block before, you may be aware that all of the winter crops need to reach full-size before mid-October. Not because of cold temperatures, but because our shortening day length doesn’t provide enough sun for photosynthesizing and plant growth. Many crops will hold in the ground all winter, but they won’t actually do any growing after October.

There’s a bit of cultivating to do on fall plantings, but essentially we are caught up. Next week we begin farm cleanup and repairs. Della is working and going to school, and Cosmo and I are heading out on a road trip through the Nevada desert. All CSA pickups proceed as usual on Tuesday.

Winter squashes are setting and ripening. Here a Table Queen acorn squash cozies up to an Eastern Rise squash.

This year has been a thrilling one, as first-year farm owners after so many years of renting. It’s also been challenging, as all farm years are. I’ve decided to reduce the size of the CSA next year. I ended up with 100 families this year and it was a struggle to make sure there was enough from week to week. In 2019, I’ll be cutting down to 70 families. Also, I will be adamant about receiving payments and commitments before the end of 2018. I’m a horrible record keeper, and I really need to have all the records taken care of before the fresh year begins. Look for an enrollment email in the next two weeks.

As I made the choice to stop watering the u-pick garden, and had to allocate time to food crops. I always struggle with how to make it a priority, giving it the time and attention that it needs to succeed. It really needs weekly care, plus a week of daily care here and there. It needs a person to commit to it. The only way I can do this is to hire someone, and so I’m going to try making it for-profit, with an on-farm roadside stand next summer. CSA customers will continue to u-pick for free, as a part of their subscribership, but non-CSA families will be charged to cut flowers and buy vegetables. This will also make it possible to bring in organic fruit from other farms, since Tonnemakers is no longer offering their CSA for us.

I welcome your thoughts about these changes. And I hope you enjoy the cooler, wetter return to fall!

Fennel, Cucumbers, Green Beans, New Potatoes, Garlic, Basil, and Summer Squashes

WEEK 19 MENU:

• Fennel
• Garlic or Sweet Onions
• Basil
• Green Beans
• “Red Norland” New Potatoes
• Zucchini and/or Summer Squash
• Cucumbers

• The U-Pick Garden is suffering from drought and lack of weeding. There are some flowers, but you’ll need to work for them. 

COMING SOON: Lettuce, Romano Beans, Stir-Fry Greens, Tomatoes

I’m not gonna lie. This weather has made me a wreck. I’m working at not complaining; summer’s heat is how we appreciate winter’s wetness. But we’re struggling over here to keep up with all the work and watering.

Long evenings pruning tomatoes at 90+° mean that I get to see the moon rise.

The heart of the issue is that we are currently farming four seasons of crops. Summer crops aren’t the only thing going right now. We’re also planting for fall (think greens, squashes, onions, peppers, and tomatoes), Winter (leeks, brussels sprouts, roots), AND Spring (overwintered broccoli, onions, etc.). That means the farm is fully being worked and cultivated. We need to be aware of all the things, and all their needs. And watering 24/7 is very difficult on city water, not to mention expensive.

Bumblebees love beans.

And so, as the days pass, I’ve had to make choices about what gets to live and what gets sacrificed to the water gods. What gets weeded and what gets sacrificed to the weed gods, aka “rototiller”. What can be replanted in time, and taken care of, and what needs every single day that remains until October, when plant growth will stop.

Early morning water moving. These beans need to be drip-taped, but there was no time that day and they needed water or they’d die.

If climate extremes are here to stay, I’ll have to make different choices about what to grow in the hot months. Leafy crops are definitely suffering. I just don’t have the water for things that need sprinklers. Drip tape crops can be watered so much more efficiently, and cover much more ground at one time with no loss to evaporation or weeds.

Romano Beans are loving the heat. They’re trellised, so as long as they get watered every 2-3 days they’ll be tender and productive.

Unhappy crops right now: lettuce, kale, chard, arugula. Basically anything grown for its leaves.

Happy crops: cucumbers, squash, beans, tomatoes, peppers. The herbs are happy because I’ve been pouring on water.

Onions have dried up and are done with water. They just need to be harvested. Carrots and beets are happy on maintenance levels, but there won’t be any to harvest for a few more weeks.

Nearly done with the first, major tomato pruning. Won’t be long now.

Sadly, the UPick garden was sacrificed to the water gods. I simply couldn’t give up water needed for food crops. There are zinnias and sunflowers in there, and hopefully with the cooler weather they can be encouraged to flourish. The beans I planted germinated very poorly, and I can’t justify replanting the seed this late in the season. It’s very discouraging, and it makes me quite sad that I haven’t been able to follow through on that promise.

With all that said, I am very optimistic about the fall and winter. There are plenty of brassica crops settling in, even though Cosmo has had to do rabbit patrol nightly to keep the bunnies from mowing the whole planting down. The onions fared very well, and it will be good to have them harvested and tucked away for later. The squashes are starting to bloom and set, and the leeks and celery are looking mahvelous. Carrots and Beets are going in the ground this week, as soon as the hot weather breaks and we can water often enough to keep them moist through germination. In two weeks all the winter greens will get planted as well. After the first cultivation, at the end of August, the big hump will be crested and days will be noticeably shorter.

Until this year I didn’t realize that Hummingbirds love bean blossoms! There have been several that fly in and out of the bean greenhouse, whether I’m in there or not. And now, they are frequenting the pole bean rows outside. We have several Anna’s Hummingbirds that overwinter and nest here, and as a result, the whole families are chilling in the beans, sitting on the wire and chattering.

So, my apologies for being sparse with communication lately. But there’s a big update!

Purple radishes and lettuce mix are nearly ready. Just one more week!

COMING SOON: Pea Shoots, Radishes, Salad Turnips, Rhubarb Lettuce Mix, Dill, Cilantro, Chervil, Beet Greens, Spinach!

Two warm, sunny days are all it takes to make the brassicas bloom, bringing an end to Rapini and Broccolini Season. See you next year!

First, the bad news:
I’ve decided to skip this week’s CSA harvest. 

The first warm week of spring is always a challenge, as the overwintered crops like kale, raab, and chard all go to flower. And the newly planted crops are not quite big enough for harvest. I’ve been stewing about this since last week’s harvest, evaluating all the new things. The radishes are still tiny, the salad greens are harvestable, but if I pick them now, we’ll only have them for two weeks. After a week of sun, they’ll be twice as big and I can harvest for 3-4 weeks, when the outside planting will be ready. The turnip and beet greens are luscious, but the same situation. If we wait one more week we’ll have twice as much. Plant growth is exponential when the weather is warm and sunny, and all of these first plantings are in greenhouses, making them extra quick.

These beet greens are so close! One more week and they’ll be in our bellies!

Remember last year, we didn’t get anything planted until May. Not only do we already have crops in the ground, but we are going to be putting in even more this week. Hopefully all of 10,000 onion plants, artichokes, lettuces, cabbages, spinach, turnips, carrots, peas, herbs, and a big round of u-pick flower babies.

By next week, these turnips will be big enough to eat, and we’ll need to harvest half as many to satisfy everyone.

 

The greenhouse peas are taking off! I had to tie them up today to keep the aisles open for picking. We should be feasting on peas in 3-4 weeks!

In just one day “off” of harvesting, we got so much done! Since a chance of rain was forecast before the coming week of dry, warm weather, we hustled to get a bunch of things planted.

So many things planted ahead of the gentle rain. Greens, roots, and peas outside. A month ahead of last year!

Sugar Snap Peas, Pea Shoots, Carrots, Turnips, Radishes, Arugula, Stir-Fry Mix, Lettuce Mix, Cilantro, Dill, and Spinach. And the massive onion planting continues.

We got a good start on the U-Pick garden: Bachelor’s Buttons, Rocky Mountain Garland, Corn Cockle, Calendula, Shirley Poppies, Queen Anne’s Lace, and Gladiola bulbs. Also 8 rows of Sugar Snap Peas. Dahlias going in today.

We also got caught up on U-Pick Garden planting. The Tulips and Daffodils may be finished, but there will be so much in 4-6 weeks!

Fresh, spring crops! Green Garlic, Purple Radishes, Lettuce Mix, Rhubarb, Sorrel, and Thyme.

WEEK 5 MENU:

• Lettuce Mix
• Purple Radishes
• Rhubarb
• Green Garlic or Shallots
• Fresh Thyme or Sorrel

• No U-Pick right now…around the end of May there will be more flowers

COMING SOON: Pea Shoots, Dill, Cilantro, Chervil, Beet Greens, Mustard Mix, PEAS, and Carrots!

What an incredible week! Taking a break from harvesting last week was an incredible idea. It gave us time to get a lot of new things planted, and all of the old things cultivated.

These dry days have been perfect for getting our big onion crop in the ground. Did you know that onions have a timer? Up here above the 45th parallel, we have to get our onion plants as big as possible by the Summer Solstice, June 21, because bullying onions have a timer: As soon as the days start getting shorter, they start to bulb. So the bigger the plant, the bigger the bulb!

Two-thirds of the 2018 onion crop is planted and doing well. That’s about 9,000 onions so far. All that’s left are the winter storage onions and leeks. I am determined not to repeat the Onion Disaster of 2017.

Cultivation, in the farmer sense, means cleaning up weeds, but it’s also a disturbance of the soil. Aerating the surface allows oxygen and water to enter between the soil particles easily, and that results in quicker, healthier growth. Roots grow faster, which means the plants absorb more nutrients, faster. This wheel hoe is my tool of choice: on the left are the cultivated rows, and on the right are those that need cultivating. It’s also good upper body exercise.

The first outside planting of Snap Peas, Pea Shoots, Carrots, Radishes, and Turnips. Plus a second outside planting of Arugula, Spinach, Mustard Mix, Cilantro, and Dill. Next week we’ll be able to plant out the first Lettuces, Napa Cabbages, Kohlrabi, Green Onions, and the Artichokes.

Extra weeding, watering, and heat this week pumped the greenhouse peas into flowering. It’s hard to say which will win the race, Sugar Snaps or Shelling Peas. But I’m not picky! I’ll eat them both!

Though the temps were in the 80’s last week, let’s not forget that last year at this time we were still waiting for the rain to stop and had NOTHING planted outside yet. 2018 is going to be incredible!

Swiss Chard, Kale Mix, Broccoli Raab, Green Shallots, and Sorrel or Parsley or Salad Mustard. Plus U-Pick Daffodils and Tulips

WEEK 2 MENU:

• Swiss Chard
• Kale Mix
• Broccoli Raab
• Green Shallots
• Sorrel, Parsley, and Salad Mustard

• U-Pick Daffodils and Tulips

COMING SOON: Pea Shoots, Radishes, Lettuce Mix, Dill, Cilantro, Chervil, Beet Greens!

Week 1 went so chaotically fast that I forgot about blogging, so here’s week 2 already. Spring has sprung, and we’ve got plenty of leaves. Last year, we started out strong with overwintered crops, but we weren’t able to get ground worked or new crops planted until May, so we had a gap of a few weeks where we didn’t have anything to harvest. I’m hoping that we’ll avoid that situation this year.

Rainbow Chard is the Skittles of vegetables.

There was a brief window in April when the ground dried enough to work and get some quick crops in. Pea shoots, fava beans, beets, spinach, radishes… and they all came up! The greenhouses are popping with big plantings of early carrots and sugar snap peas, herbs, and greens. Next week looks a little repetitive, but by week 4 we’ll have salad greens and radishes, dill and cilantro, beet greens and baby turnips.

My greenhouse pest control front man is on-duty.

In the mean time, the swiss chard and parsley I planted in the greenhouse last fall came back in amazing form, and the kale, rapini, and sorrel are abundant, and garlic and onions are close to ready as tender, young greens.

Make sure you stop and pick the flowers! U-Pick flowers are available during CSA hours: Saturdays after Noon, and Tuesdays after 2:00.

I haven’t been able to get the earliest flower transplants in the ground yet, but there are tulips and daffodils available for you to take home. If you don’t pick them they are wasted, so please pick the flowers!

Please don’t be dismayed that there are only 5 or 6 different items right now. There is so much to come, and it’s early!

We may get snow in February, but the Purple Deadnettle is determined to stay blooming, just in case the bumblebees emerge and need feeding.

COMING SOON: An exciting, new, amazing season!

Two weeks ago it snowed and it was frozen for days on end. Our greenhouses aren’t heated, so we couldn’t even plant inside them because the ground was frozen.

We’re in a freezing spell—February is always the coldest month—but the Willow hedgerow is blooming. Pussy Willows are flowers, and their pollen is the first thing to feed hungry honeybees. They don’t really need nectar in early spring, they need protein-rich pollen to feed their babies, and Willows are the perfect source.

But March is a fickle month, and all you have to do is wait a day and spring starts to happen!

The first Purple Broccoli sprouts are coming. We started these last July, and put the plants in the ground in August. That’s 8 months of growing time. Can’t wait for the CSA to start in just a few more weeks!

I gauge the start of our harvest season, for both CSA and market, by the timing of the rapini and broccolini crops. Sprouting broccoli is already starting, but the kale, turnips, and cabbages are just not quite there. But they are getting ready.

I planted sugar snap and shelling peas in mid February, on top of a heat bed in the greenhouse. I’ll be planting them in the ground this weekend, and we’ll be eating them mid-May through June!

But what to do in the waiting time? Well, I have taken to going away to sunny places. Della and I travelled to New Mexico and visited the monuments and national parks. A week of bright sun. Next week I’m taking both kids to the Utah parks and Grand Canyon. Then it will be time to really focus on farming.

It’s finally not freezing, and the days are getting longer, so I’ve started planting greenhouses. This one is full of carrots! Another contains rows of radishes, arugula, salad greens, cilantro, dill, and chervil. Yet another will be full of baby turnips, beets, and more greens. These are the crops that we’ll be harvesting in late April and May.

In the winter weeks at home, though, we clean up and I plant. Here are the peas I started in February, on a heat mat. They’re ready to be planted in the ground this weekend. And the other greenhouses are full of carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, and salad greens. I can’t wait!

It looks like we’ll have a glorious weekend to get a spot of June greens planted, and the fava beans. Plus, we hope to get the potato ground prepped. The onion plants have arrived and they’ll be getting planted soon as well. Already, this year is shaping up better than last year. Because last spring, it didn’t stop raining until May. And we didn’t get anything planted outside until almost June.

Keep an eye on your email inboxes, because CSA startup information will come to you right after March 21! It’s the final countdown! I’m aiming for March 31 as the CSA start date, and first West Seattle Market date of April 1.

With the feed mill down the street, we always have a rodent problem here. Rats, mice, and voles. I have to set traps for mice and rats in the greenhouse, and right now they’re liking the peas, so that’s the bait I use. Later I’ll change to basil and cabbage seed. Our little terrier mix, Mario is an amazing ratter, and Cosmo gets paid a bounty for shooting them with his air rifle.

At long last, on December 28, we signed the papers on the farm. We are now farm owners, renters no more.

COMING SOON: An exciting, new, amazing season!

The final CSA pickup was two weeks ago, and I have been remiss in getting a timely final blog post finished. I did take on a seasonal job with UPS, and that kept me pretty busy for about 10 hours a day… and it also got me back in physical shape. But here I am, on New Years’ Eve, getting it done!

The final CSA pickup of 2017! Savoy Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Kale or Chard, Onions, Garlic, Delicata Squash, Two kinds of Potatoes, Candy Carrots, Sweet Beets, and Radicchio.

This has not been my favorite farming year. But once you start, you have to finish, and I believe we finished strong. I tend to remember the negatives: Replacing all the greenhouse plastic skins because we had to cut them after 6″ of heavy snowfall; The weeks of waiting to plant in the spring because it would not stop raining, then the missed weeks of harvest because we hadn’t been able to plant on time. And then the near-stroke injury I suffered in May that made it impossible and life-threatening for me to do any physical work…until October!

35 degrees and foggy, winter harvest day.

But it’s important to remember the good as well: How I successfully downsized the farm business, and ended up making nearly the same profit. How we had two truly amazing teenagers working for us all summer to help get my work done. How we ended up making it to the end of our 40 week season with plenty of food. And, with the help and support of our incredible community, we raised $80,000 and WE BOUGHT THE FARM!

White Christmas means work here! The forecast said rain was coming after the snow, so all the snow had to come off the greenhouses, lest they collapse under the weight.

Now we start making loan payments, and property tax payments, and doing many improvement projects that we haven’t wanted to invest in without a secure future. We’ll be building a barn, building a new farm stand, and burying our irrigation lines. Improving drainage around our structures, improving access to spaces we want you to be able to see, and encouraging you to explore our farm more. We feel that our farm belongs to all of you who ask us to feed you, and you should see it all. We’ll be announcing the date for our Farm Purchase Party sometime this spring, so keep your calendars handy!

Savoy Cabbages are wrinkly, and more cold-hardy than their smooth brethren.

NOTE: We still have 40 CSA spaces to fill, and it would be reassuring to know who is planning on joining us for a spectacular 2018. If you haven’t enrolled yet, please do so soon. Even a deposit will help with our winter and spring farm expenses, and there is no extra charge for making payments, as long as your CSA share is paid in full by March 1. Here’s the form link in case you need it. 2018 Farm Flyer. Let me know if you’d like an invoice to pay by credit card.

Thank you so much, and we wish you all the best in 2018.

Shelley, Mike, Della, and Cosmo